GBA holds 2nd annual bankers day

By Maimuna Sey-Jawo The Gambia Bankers’ Association (GBA) on Saturday held its annual Bankers Day Celebration at the Coco Ocean Resort and Spa. The theme was “banks for good governance”. The day is meant to bring together stakeholders in the banking, government, other financial institutions and the general public to interact as well as speak of the achievements. Speaking at the event, the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Amadou Sanneh said the role of finance in economic development is paramount in any economy, be it developed, emerging and developing. The minister of finance added that the government of the Gambia under the leadership of President Adama Barrow is committed to addressing challenges in a holistic manner to boost enterprise growth, create jobs for youths, diversify the economy through structural change in partnership with the international community. He said the international community has “renewed commitment and strong willingness to assist our currently fragile state in identifying critical macro-economic and financial management issues and working with us to develop strategies to address these pressing and urgent challenges.” Minister Sanneh noted the government will provide a stable political and macroeconomic environment, fiscal discipline and good governance; “well functioning legal and information infrastructure ensuring democracy, respect for human rights, protecting freedom of speech and association and a strong financial regulation and supervision that enables greater market monitoring without distorting the initiatives and incentives of market participants. Through this effort, enterprise broad access to financial services will be facilitated and achieved with invaluable participation of our banking sector in introducing new financial products, development of investment banking operations for longer term investments.” President of the Gambia Bankers Association, Momodou M Musa, said: “We hope that the knowledge and skills acquired from these trainings are valuable in the banking industry for professional services delivery to our ever increasing sophisticated clients. “I am proud to inform you that we have registered success in the Associate Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB) examination over the past six years. We have consistently scored over 70% past rate in the examination and some of our students have scored distinction grades at the Chartered level.” The Executive Secretary and the Register of the Gambia Bankers Association Mamour Malick Jagne spoke on the significance of the forum, adding that in 2008, the commercial Banks in the Gambia have come together to create the GBA. “We are now busy working together which means success. A major milestone in the history of the Gambia Bankers Association was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria on the 17th January, 2011,” he stated. The MOU he stated gave the authority to the Gambia Bankers Association to run the CIBN curriculum and to serve as an external examination centre, saying that the relationship sealed in 2011 has changed the quality of banking training programme in the Gambia. He explains that the institute has made a significant progress in the registration of new members in 2016, adding that a total of 29 new members were recruited and registered as member of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) between January and November 2016. The Chairman Board of Treasure Pa Macoumba Njie, revealed that from 2011 to date, the institute has generously and consistently assisted the Gambia to register, train and award internationally recognized certificates in Banking and Finance to over 200 Gambians and non Gambians from Diploma to Chartered levels. The President/Chairman of Council, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Prof Joseph Olusegun Ajibola also spoke at the event.]]>